Since I talked about it in my last blog, I figured I should get this out of the way. I don’t necessarily like talking about this, because it often feels like I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill, but here we go.
We had our 20-week anatomy scan the week after our wedding. It took forever and was none too comfortable. Anyone who has ever held one of those ultrasound probes to my belly has made some kind of comment about how the kid won’t stop moving and/or is crazy stubborn (like father, like daughter). It took the sonographer a very long time to get all the measurements she needed to get, and boy did she dig for them.
When it was finally over, we met with our doctor, who told us that the scan revealed that Charlie’s umbilical cord only has two blood vessels, where 99% of babies have three. She said it’s typically not a big deal, but that I’d officially be classified as “high risk” and that Charlie would be closely monitored by a specialist throughout the remainder of the pregnancy.
She seemed very careful to deliver the news to me as positively as possible. She even made it a point to acknowledge that she hated that this was happening to me, as she knows how anxious of a person I am, and wanted to stress that I shouldn’t worry too much about it.
Obviously, “not worrying” isn’t really a thing I’m good at, but I knew I needed to try.
So, I did what I do best, and I read a ton about it, knowing that the more information I could gather, the better I’d be able to handle what was to come. From what I read and what the doctor told me, this is the bare bones of what I learned:
A Two-Vessel Cord, or a Single Umbilical Artery (SUA), is one of the most common abnormalities in pregnancies, and it basically just means that the flow of nutrients to and toxins from baby won’t be as smooth as normal.
There are no clear risk factors, or reasons why it occurs, nor is there anything you can do (exercise/diet plans, special vitamins, etc.) to prevent it or make things better or worse once it’s occurred. So, whatever happens as a result of an SUA is completely out of a woman’s control.
In a lot of known cases of SUA, babies are born full-term and are perfectly healthy – and it’s not always diagnosed.
That said, it does heighten the risk for a number of things, most commonly fetal growth restriction, pre-term labor, complications during labor/delivery, and some scarier things that I try really hard not to think too much about, so I’m not even going to mention them. Google it if you’re curious.
(With this in mind, remember my panic attack over the Braxton Hicks contractions? Make even more sense now?)
But again… want to stress that the outlook is pretty good, and it gets better with each visit to our high risk doctor.
During our first visit, he spent a while measuring everything and looking for any signs that something else was amiss. He found nothing. Her heart, brain, liver, and other organs were all perfectly fine. He was even able to rule out the common forms of Downs Syndrome that are often associated with SUA.
Since then, Charlie has continued to progress in her development as would be expected in a normal pregnancy. In our most recent scan, Doc even told us that her head was bigger than expected, measuring two weeks ahead of pace, to be exact. I fully blame Sean for that one.
To be honest, I think I’m handling the SUA thing better than I thought I would. I have had some panic/anxiety attacks related to it here and there, and I do have a persistent anxiety about the possibility of pre-term labor (I have this overwhelming feeling that anything can happen at any moment.) Otherwise, I think I’m doing a decent job of not letting it worry me too much… or, at least, I’m doing such a bad job at letting other things worry me so much that I don’t have enough energy left to invest in worrying over this one.
Ultimately, I just feel grateful for the extra monitoring, and I’m kind of thinking it will be difficult for me to manage not getting as much of it the next time around.
I know every pregnancy is different, but I’m learning that a lot of the worries/fears/anxieties are the same. I’m enjoying sharing mine with you and hearing your stories.
Women are pretty damn strong.
Moms The Word 